ABSTRACT
This chapter describes depressive behavior in laboratory primates, describes how depressive behavior can be measured, and describes other behavioral and physiological characteristics of depressed primates. It is important to understand depressive behavior in nonhuman primates (NHPs) and the associated differences in physiology and neurobiology between NHPs that exhibit depressive behavior and those that do not, in order to manage the monkeys effectively in captive environments. Depressive behavior is more common in subordinate than dominant female cynomolgus macaques. Depression in humans and NHPs appears to share several characteristics. These include risk factors, such as low social status, early experience, and temperament and behaviors, such as low social interaction, anhedonia, and immobility. Therapeutic interventions for human depression have modest efficacy. In human beings, higher rates of depression are associated with consumption of a Western diet, and lower rates of depression are associated with adherence to a Mediterranean diet pattern.
